Cholera still spreading in eastern Sudan, decreasing in El Gezira

SUDAN- Six people died of cholera in Halfa El Jadeeda in Kassala state last week. Four new cases were recorded. The isolation unit at the Singa Hospital in Sennar admitted 42 new cases on Thursday and Friday. Tamboul in El Gezira is witnessing a decrease in the number of cholera patients.

Speaking to Radio Dabanga, a medical source reported from Kassala that six cholera patients died in the Halfa El Jadeeda Hospital last week.

The hospital received four new cases on Thursday, bringing the total number of patients in the isolation wards to 94. A number of recovering patients were expected to leave the hospital on Friday.

The source said that cholera spread in the villages of Alawi, 18 Arab, 5 Arab, 33 Um Najma and in the El Masna district of the northern part of El Thora in Halfa El Jadeeda. “The Halfa El Jadeeda Hospital allocated an isolation ward for cases coming from Atbara River locality, while a second ward was reserved for patients from Halfa El Jadeeda.”

Sennar

The cholera isolation unit at the hospital in the Sennar capital of Singa received 40 new cases on Thursday.

“Two more cholera patients reached the hospital on Friday morning, while five people who recovered from the infection were discharged,” a health worker told this station.

Most of the new cases come from El Souki and El Dindir localities. The other patients are residents from villages adjacent to Singa.

A cholera patient died and seven new cases were recorded in El Gireisha locality in El Gedaref on Thursday and Friday. “Most of the new patients come from the areas of Berber and Wad Yousef,” a medical source reported.

He pointed to a drop in new cases. “The El Gedaref Hospital now receives only about two new cases a day.”

Sanitation campaigns

The area of Tamboul in El Gezira has recorded a remarkable decrease in cholera cases at the isolation centre of the Tamboul Hospital.

“Only 15 people are now being treated at the hospital,” a medical source at the hospital told Radio Dabanga. He attributed the drop of the infection rates to the spraying and chlorination campaigns carried out by youth volunteers in the area.